Orange County Register, March 4, 1994: Difference between revisions
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"We brought in people because we thought they'd do a good job with the songs. It just seemed the right thing to do," he said of his new album, due out Tuesday. "I just sort of gathered them gradually, which is why I don't even think of it as a reunion." | "We brought in people because we thought they'd do a good job with the songs. It just seemed the right thing to do," he said of his new album, due out Tuesday. "I just sort of gathered them gradually, which is why I don't even think of it as a reunion." | ||
Call it what you will, longtime fans of the British singer/songwriter/musician — who many critics say is equaled only by Bob Dylan — will be thrilled with ''Brutal Youth''. After the classical ''The Juliet Letters'', recorded with the Brodsky Quartet, and the dense ''Mighty Like a Rose'', Costello has returned to the stripped-down sound he and the Attractions used when he smashed the barriers between punk, pop and rock on classic albums such as ''Trust'' and ''Armed Forces''. | Call it what you will, longtime fans of the British singer/<wbr>songwriter/<wbr>musician — who many critics say is equaled only by Bob Dylan — will be thrilled with ''Brutal Youth''. After the classical ''The Juliet Letters'', recorded with the Brodsky Quartet, and the dense ''Mighty Like a Rose'', Costello has returned to the stripped-down sound he and the Attractions used when he smashed the barriers between punk, pop and rock on classic albums such as ''Trust'' and ''Armed Forces''. | ||
Like fans of Neil Young, Costello devotees are frustrated with his career at times. He can effortlessly toss off pop/rock classics such as "Alison," "Beyond Belief" or the new songs "This Is Hell" and "London's Brilliant Parade." | Like fans of Neil Young, Costello devotees are frustrated with his career at times. He can effortlessly toss off pop/rock classics such as "Alison," "Beyond Belief" or the new songs "This Is Hell" and "London's Brilliant Parade." | ||
But he chooses to spend years exploring other less-familiar terrain. | |||
"I've heard a bit of this kind of talk before," he said. "Those people either have a more traditional or conservative view of what I do. They don't like me to deviate too much from that image. | |||
"In some cases it's people who maybe listened to me when I started and that's their idea of what I do — maybe the first five albums. After that, they start to get a bit perplexed because of the detours. Without doing those things, I think they'd be equally tired of you. They'd say, 'He's just trotting out the same old formula.' So you can't really have it both ways." | |||
He laughed. | |||
"On the other hand ... I understand that attitude. I've had that same attitude about people. I mean, I don't like every Neil Young record, though I'm a big Neil Young fan. My favorite stuff is ''Ragged Glory'', and when he's doing that, I love it." | |||
Other Young diversions, even including ''Harvest Moon'', don't strike Costello as much. | |||
"I'm aware of those people, and I know maybe they get exasperated sometimes by me following my instincts about music and trying to do things that I think are interesting and worthwhile," he said. "I believe in the long run it's richer for the next musical thing you do." | |||
Struggling with a case of bronchitis — a leftover from a Canadian video shoot — Costello, 39, took an hour recently to set the record straight on reunions, classical music and his career twists. | |||
First, the classical album was one of his greatest commercial successes, both in the United States and overseas. | |||
"''The Juliet Letters'' was the biggest-selling album I've ever had my name on in Japan," Costello said. "It's already out-sold ''Spike'' and ''Armed Forces'', my other two big sellers." | |||
Worldwide the album has sold 250,000 copies after originally being budgeted for sales of 100,000. | |||
"That's a hell of a lot for a chamber-music record," he said. | |||
''Brutal Youth'' came about when Costello and drummer Pete Thomas returned to London's Pathway Studios, the same eight-track studio in which he recorded ''My Aim Is True'' in the late '70s. | |||
"I didn't even tell the record company or anybody that I was starting to make a record," he said. "It was just Pete and I in a studio. He and I were playing the songs live, with him on drums and me on electric guitar and singing live. Then I'd just dub everything else that was needed. | |||
"As much as I enjoyed that, there were other types of songs I was writing that wouldn't suit that kind of recording. They needed more musicians to play them properly." | |||
Producer Mitchell Froom was brought in, as was bassist Nick Lowe and former Attractions pianist Steve Nieve. | |||
"Shortly after that, Mitchell said there are a couple of the songs that (bassist Bruce Thomas would play great on," he said. "The next thing I knew it was the Attractions in the studio, without anybody really noticing." | |||
It wasn't quite that simple. Years ago, Bruce Thomas had protested bitterly when Costello had started working with musicians other than the Attractions. Thomas even wrote a book, thinly veiled as a novel, blasting his former boss. | |||
"You know, a couple of us haven't been getting along terribly well," Costello said diplomatically. "To be honest, I don't think very many people, including us, ever expected us to be playing together again. | |||
"But when you think about what's positive about playing together against a squabble you may have had some time ago, you think 'Is it really worth it to let that stand in the way of playing?' It wasn't like 'Oh, well, I've gone on my holiday, now I'll come home and put on my comfortable shoes.' If anything, you know this was going to be a bit more edgy." | |||
Edgy maybe, but Costello quickly used the band's skill to pull together his most compelling set of songs in years. | |||
"Obviously someone like Steve Nieve has a tremendous amount of technique ... and Bruce is the same, and increasingly Pete as well. He listens much more to the other players and is much more concerned with the tone of his drums. The drums don't sound like something stuck on, just rhythm. They're actually an instrument that's giving (the music) character as well." | |||
But he quickly tires of talking about the new album. | |||
"I'm always thinking of the future. There's always another record to make," he said. | |||
So we come to one of his biggest problems: competition with himself. You can't hear all of Costello's music because the record companies simply can't put it out fast enough. By the time they do, he's moved to something else. | |||
His prolific rate of writing is legendary. Last year he wrote an entire album of songs for Wendy James in a single weekend. | |||
"I'm working harder than I have ever been," he said. "I know I've written over 300 songs. A lot of those are for other people. I think I'm working probably much more now. I mean, the year of the ''Juliet Letters'' I think I wrote 50 songs" — about one completed song a week. | |||
Wait, there's more. Costello recently mastered the final mix of ''The Kojak Variety'', where he sings some of his favorite songs written by other artists, but he isn't sure if it'll come out this year or next. It wasn't released when originally scheduled last year because it would have interfered with his other project, ''The Juliet Letters''. | |||
Plus he's working on a musical drama, which he hoped to have out this year. | |||
"The musical drama thing was always a little ambitious; when I wrote that, I knew I was making problems," Costello said. "I'm still working on that. It will happen eventually, but it's an ambitious thing to do. Not many people write scripts and lyrics and music ''and'' orchestrate it. It's a lot of stuff I've got to learn before I can really confidently move forward." | |||
One area where he can move with confidence is his singing. Once described as reedy and limited, Costello's career detours have forced him to pay attention to his vocal style. And aging has actually helped. | |||
"It's kind of good to think you could get better at something as you get older," Costello said. "Funnily enough, I've got this quirky thing where my voice is actually getting higher. | |||
"My range has increased as I've gotten older. The first five albums, the delivery is very quick. There are only a few songs with any long, sustained notes in them. There are a lot of words. | |||
"Therefore, it's a lot of rattling kind of syllables going by. You wouldn't exactly say it's very melodious or tuneful, although there are some good melodies in some of the songs." | |||
Side trips like his country album, ''Almost Blue'', and the recent classical work forced Costello to push. | |||
"It's obvious from singing those (country) songs that you learn a little bit more about how to control your voice and perhaps that gives you a little bit more expressive quality," he said. "I suppose the same could be true now with ''The Juliet Letters''. Obviously that was a challenge to find a blend with the quartet." | |||
{{tags}}[[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] {{-}} [[The Juliet Letters]] {{-}} [[The Brodsky Quartet]] {{-}} [[Mighty Like A Rose]] {{-}} [[Trust]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[Neil Young]] {{-}} [[ | {{cx}}<!-- --><!-- Caption: FAST NOTES: Prolific Elvis Costello has written more than 300 songs, including an album's worth in one weekend last year. --> | ||
{{tags}}[[Brutal Youth]] {{-}} [[Pete Thomas]] {{-}} [[Mitchell Froom]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Steve Nieve]] {{-}} [[Bruce Thomas]] {{-}} [[The Attractions]] {{-}} [[Bob Dylan]] {{-}} [[The Juliet Letters]] {{-}} [[The Brodsky Quartet]] {{-}} [[Mighty Like A Rose]] {{-}} [[Trust]] {{-}} [[Armed Forces]] {{-}} [[Alison]] {{-}} [[Beyond Belief]] {{-}} [[This Is Hell]] {{-}} [[London's Brilliant Parade]] {{-}} [[Neil Young]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#Neil Young|Ragged Glory]] {{-}} [[Spike]] {{-}} [[Pathway Studios]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Wendy James: Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears|Wendy James]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue]] {{-}} [[Almost Blue (song)]] {{-}} [[Imperial Bedroom]] {{-}} [[King Of America]] {{-}} [[Blood & Chocolate]] {{-}} [[Pony St.]] {{-}} [[Baby Plays Around]] {{-}} [[Still Too Soon To Know]] {{-}} [[20% Amnesia]] {{-}} [[Man Out Of Time]] {{-}} [[My Science Fiction Twin]] {{-}} [[Just About Glad]] {{-}} [[Tasmin Archer: Shipbuilding|Tasmin Archer]] {{-}} [[Shipbuilding]] {{-}} [[Deep Dark Truthful Mirror]] {{-}} [[All Grown Up]] {{-}} [[New Amsterdam]] | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
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{{Mark Brown 1994-03-04 Orange County Register}} | {{Mark Brown 1994-03-04 Orange County Register}} | ||
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[[Stephen Lynch]] reviews [[Tasmin Archer]]'s ''[[Tasmin Archer: Shipbuilding|Shipbuilding]]'' EP. | |||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
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"20% Amnesia" finds Costello pushing his voice to its limits, a near-shouted vocal over a bass-heavy groove. Two songs later there's the other extreme, with the delicate instrumentation and warm, gentle vocals of the beautiful "London's Brilliant Parade." | "20% Amnesia" finds Costello pushing his voice to its limits, a near-shouted vocal over a bass-heavy groove. Two songs later there's the other extreme, with the delicate instrumentation and warm, gentle vocals of the beautiful "London's Brilliant Parade." | ||
"This | "This Is Hell" pulls off a distinctly British bit of soap opera, echoing bits of his classic "Man Out of Time" and pulling together some of Costello's most biting, ironic lyrics in years. | ||
The loopy "My Science Fiction Twin" finds Costello, singing over a quirky bed of pure Attractions music, taking a look at a parallel life he could have led. "Just About Glad" simultaneously celebrates and laments an affair that never happened, an interesting ode to restraint in an era that requires it. | The loopy "My Science Fiction Twin" finds Costello, singing over a quirky bed of pure Attractions music, taking a look at a parallel life he could have led. "Just About Glad" simultaneously celebrates and laments an affair that never happened, an interesting ode to restraint in an era that requires it. | ||
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[[image:1994-03-04 Orange County Register, Show page 38.jpg|380px]] | [[image:1994-03-04 Orange County Register, Show page 38.jpg|380px]] | ||
{{Bibliography box}} | |||
<center><h3> Archer's love for Costello not enough </h3></center> | |||
<center>''' Tasmin Archer ''' / Shipbuilding </center> | |||
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<center> Stephen Lynch </center> | |||
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{{Bibliography text}} | |||
[[image:1994-03-04 Orange County Register, Show page 39 clipping 01.jpg|140px|right]] | |||
Tasmin Archer sums up in her liner notes the exact problem with her new EP, ''Shipbuilding''. | |||
"At first I was not sure that we could add to these songs, but our love for his work was enough to justify the attempt," she writes. | |||
But Archer's attempt to cover four Elvis Costello compositions, from various stages of his career, falls flat. Archer finds little to add to any of his material, and sometimes love just ain't enough. | |||
At first Archer's soulful voice, which garnered a best new artist nomination from MTV last year, seems perfectly suited to the title track. Her smooth singing style would have complemented Costello's original 1983 composition, with its orchestration and a subtle piano. | |||
But Archer throws out the violins for synthesizers and inadvertently reverses the original. For Costello, the voice was harsh and the music sweet; for Archer, the voice soars and the music grates. | |||
"Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," "All Grown Up" and "New Amsterdam" suffer from the same quality that added to "Shipbuilding." Archer's lovely lilt carries neither the sardonic wit nor angry sarcasm of Costello. | |||
"Deep Dark Truthful Mirror," as sung by Costello on his album ''Spike'', is a bitter tune about a jilted lover. Archer sustains the chorus as if the song were a compliment. | |||
The second half consists of live versions of songs from Archer's album ''Great Expectations''. It also contains an acoustic version of her hit "Sleeping Satellite," which sounds identical to the radio version. | |||
Archer is much more successful on interpreting her own work in concert, but her changes are limited to a few sustained notes or vocal inflections, not rearranging any melody. | |||
The best thing fans can do is wait for Archer's next album and chalk up the EP to a labor of love, realizing that love cannot conquer all. | |||
{{cx}} | |||
'''You might try if you like: Archer's ''Great Expectations'', but don't expect much. | |||
{{cx}} | |||
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*[http://www.ocregister.com OCRegister.com] | *[http://www.ocregister.com OCRegister.com] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_County_Register Wikipedia: Orange County Register] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_County_Register Wikipedia: Orange County Register] | ||
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[[Category:Album reviews]] | [[Category:Album reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Brutal Youth reviews]] | [[Category:Brutal Youth reviews]] | ||
[[Category:Tasmin Archer: Shipbuilding reviews]] |
Latest revision as of 18:38, 26 April 2024
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